Has heavy amplified music of the heyday NOT screwed up the hearing of anyone famous??

We all know about Pete Townshend. Whom himself once said about John Entwhistle and Stephen Stills that THEIR hearing was so bad that they couldn't go out and buy a tuna sandwich without wearing their hearing aid!

There is also Frank Zappa, whose upper range, according to bassist Scott Thunes, had long been shot.

I am a little worried about other personal heroes such as John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana, that used to play Les Pauls and the likes plugged in big stacks in the 70s, at searing volumes...

We often hear these days about crappy masterings from various artists that have apparently received their approval from the get-go...

On the other hand, has there been famous artists from those days that are known to have actually taken care of their ears while playing loud music?

 

The heyday? Are concerts, discos, clubs, bars or almost anywhere with amplified sounds quiet today, or filled with folks mindful of the decibels that's comin' at 'em?

Besides listeners of music have to "get everything" from a recording whereas sound can be more of a utilitarian concern to folks used to making the music, regardless of the state of their hearing.

 

I doubt J Mascis hearing is any good... Actually I doubt anyones hearing in Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine is decent!

 

Well, they may be more helpful than asking cheap boomboxes for their input on a mix

 

Reminds me of Lars Ulrich talking about how there was nothing wrong with the mastering of "Deaf Magnetic" because he checked it out himself in his CAR!

 

Depends on who the "famous" person is but you might be a lot better off with the boombox...

 

Eric Clapton in his auto biography says that he is virtually deaf, but refuses to wear a hearing aid, having got used to the sound.(or lack of it!)

 

I'd figured EC was probably another one of those casualties... Then JACK BRUCE, I guess?!... I know the list probably goes on and on... I have never heard Cream in person, but it sounds on the recordings like Bruce played at some incredible volume!...

 

Lemmy (Motorhead) is pretty deaf these days !!

 

I remember reading (my memory tells me the newspaper) as a kid that Alex Van Halen had probably lost about 50% of his hearing (no idea how that would have been calculated), and that was in the mid 80s when he was still in his 30s.

 

Singer/songwriter Krista Detor recently mentioned on her blog she checked the final mixes of her new album that way. I wonder what modern CDs would sound like if artists would take this thing a lot more seriously.

 

That is serious, who would seriously listen to their music outside of their car? Serious!

 

The singer of Metallica mentioned he can't go to asleep in his hotel after a show unless the TV is on to drown out the ringing in his ears.

I'm surprised some of these guys don't know sign language or lipreading by now.

I think Springsteen has also lost a bunch of his hearing over the years.

Eddie Van Halen has some problems on the last tour.

Interestingly, a lot of these guys do more damage in the studio than in concert.

 

Kiss. Loudest band ever but no hearing problems. The best and most expensive monitoring system helped.

 

headphones in the studio are disastrous for hearing.

 

I wonder how Stevie Wonder or Lindsey Buckingham have held up. Both are studio rats.

 

They probably understand how to take care of their ears. It really isn't that tough, just don't monitor at insane volumes. It's fine to listen loudly now and again, but you shouldn't be listening full blast all the time.

 

That's what I was going to ask: if it is because of the cans...

I personally do a lot of music listening with headphones, and I have always wondered if there was some way I could measure what I receive. I do have a R-Shack soundmeter, but it's probably useless with cans...

 

How's that? (I know what a stage monitor is... but that's about it!)

 

I can't speak for the artists mentioned, but it's not an uncommon tactic for rock/pop music to listen to the final mixes on a car stereo or equivalent (my band did this with our record before we sent it to the label; IIRC John Fogerty did this with his stuff) . It replicates the conditions under which a lot of people listen to music, and it's a good check for whether you've mixed the volume of something too low or high (for example, by your choice of where to place it in the stereo field which doesn't carry through to smaller speakers closer together) or, for example, have relied on your big expensive studio speakers to deliver some of your desired bass response and subsequently find that it disappears on smaller speakers. It's not endorsed as a basis for a final judgment by any means, but it's a good barometer to include in the proceedings.

 

Drummers can easily mess up their hearing without wearing anything. Especially the cymbal hits.

 

Indeed. When I went to school for audio engineering, our instructors told us to listen to our mixes on as many different sets of equipment as possible. Car radio, boom box, big home stereo, shelf speakers, small speakers, headphones, etc.

 

All of the huge amps behind them are just for show or are not loud. However, they are miked and the PAs out in front of them are very loud. The performers hear themselves with stage facing monitors that are not at all loud. Hence, loud out in front, relatively quiet facing towards the stage.